Vampire Knight Oneshots
by Leni
Summary: Various characters. Canon pairings and situations. Story 03: IN HER HANDS. KanameYuuki. "When love isn't madness, it isn't love."
1. Zero, Kaname, Cross

**DISCLAIMER:** Hino-san owns. I play!  
**SUMMARY:** Three vignettes set shortly before the series start.  
**WARNINGS:** Small spoilers to background seen in the manga and not in the anime.  
**WORDCOUNT:** ~3x300

_Written at **vk_guardians. **Prompt: 'fierce'.  
X-posted at **fanfic_bakeoff**_

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**FOR HER  
**_by Leni_

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**Zero**

When he accepted to enroll back into school to be Yuuki's fellow guardian, Zero hadn't planned on spending Saturday afternoons sitting across her at the Headmaster's kitchen table. Geometry homework - followed by Algebra, Trigonometry and Arithmetic - has become his penance until dinner and sometimes long after it.

Except it's no penance at all.

Yuuki's pencil has a chewed end that her teeth deform further as she glares at the long equation with fierce determination. She mutters to herself, "Do I subtract or divide first?"

Zero knows to wait until she seeks his help. Yuuki may struggle, twist herself in a string of numbers until the eraser breaks through paper and she starts a new page.

But he waits.

The first time he tutored her, Zero had (eagerly, helpfully - their opinions still diverge) dictated the solved homework until Yuuki sighed and set her pencil aside. "I have to learn this for myself." Then, a sadder sigh, "Even when there's no point to it."

So he lets her to her mistakes, offering no more than a deep cough when she starts down the wrong path or small unconscious nods when she grasps the procedure.

"You're doing it on purpose," Yuuki accused him once, catching his eye after a particularly strong fit of coughing (she'd abandoned a variable, just _abandoned_ it). Zero denied it, of course, and cringed for the next five minutes until she turned to him askance.

In the end, she always turns to him.

"Division, always," Zero answers.

Yuuki smiles gratefully, finishing the rest of the exercise on her own. "I'm starving," she declares as she closes her book, and on her the statement sounds less like a ploy to keep him around than it does on Headmaster Cross. "Wanna grab a bite?"

For her, he smiles back. "Why not?"

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**Kaname**

A closed door is a silent order at the Night Dormitory. Vampire survival instincts are well-developed, and they warn the others not to trespass. Kaname imagines the invisible layer of danger surrounding his rooms, fed by his dark musings and the powerless frustration that grows with every year.

If other students have noticed the cycle to these occurrences, that the threat grows thicker as a particular date approaches, they don't tell. It's unlikely, though; most would consider it a coincidence, since a Kuran pureblood must be above pedestrian feelings such as bitterness.

Bitterness.

What a tame word for the fierce thirst inside him.

It will soon be Yuuki's 'birthday' again, a lonely remembrance of the truth while he forces himself to smile through the requisite visit.

Bitterness!

Try utter despair.

Because of her, Kaname stands on the brink of madness. For her, he shuts himself in his study until the beast is leashed, and he knows he won't tear into her throat at the dormitory gate. Until he leaves this room, a man in control again, no one would dare approach.

Except for one.

"But it's _important,_" Aidou whines in the corridor.

Takuma's sigh is so loud that even a human would have caught it. "Then I'll take care of it." Silence. Then, impatient and commanding, "_I_ will take care, Hanabusa."

Kaname can picture Aidou's stubborn features. He waits, but there's neither a word nor movement on the other side of the door.

Then… "That Cross girl's been spying again. I caught her last night." A huff. "Don't you think we should appoint new guardians?"

"No."

His presence startles them enough that their greeting bows are stiff and awkward.

"But, Kaname-sama…." Kaname focuses on Aidou, inviting him to contradict his order. The other vampire draws back. "As you wish, Kaname-sama."

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**Cross**

"Come in," Cross calls, more high-spirited at the recognizable knock. It's grown less timid as years passed, but the rhythm reminds him of the six-year-old who asked to sit in on his meetings with Kaname.

So much has changed since those days.

Now Yuuki makes her excuses whenever she and Kaname cross paths in his office. Sweet, transparent child; she'll flee the room unable to meet anyone's eyes or hide a telling blush.

Blood is thicker than water, Cross remembers.

Blood has brought them all together, and shall run its course to the bitter end.

He often wishes he could send Kaname-sama away; but mostly he remembers the mute disengaged girl that'd waited at the window until he called Kaname back.

They _are_ blood. It _is_ thicker than water - or in this case, stronger than Juri's spell.

Gods help whoever stands in their way.

Cross crushes down his worry about Zero when the door opens. "Yes, Yuuki?"

"Good morning, Headmaster Cross."

His eyes widen in silent plea. "Call me father?"

Yuuki shifts the dirty bundle she carries from one hand to the other.

"Please."

An impatient look.

"Papa?" he tries last. For her, he'll be a fool. Yuuki needs to know a father's love is hers.

"Headmaster Cross," she repeats firmly. "I need a new uniform."

The wheedling routine stops there. Yuuki only asks for new clothes when…. He glances at her bundle, recognizing the school colors. In a flash, he goes to her, unable to restrict a hunter's speed in his haste to check the damage. Long scratches cluster along her arm, thin and shallow like the branch of a thorny bush scraping against her. He moves to catch her in a fierce hug, "Tough patrol, huh?"

"Something like that," she mutters, and deftly sidesteps away from his grasp.

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**The End  
**17/02/10

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p.s. New set of prompts at **vk_guardians **every Saturday ar 19:00.

vk(underscore)guardians dot livejournal dot com


	2. Ichiru

**DISCLAIMER:** Hino-san owns. I play!  
**SUMMARY:** Ichiru, on his third day at school.  
**WORDCOUNT:** ~1150

_Written at **vk_guardians. **Prompt: 'I'll let darkness cover me.'_

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**COVER ME  
**_by Leni_

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_"You are such a foolish boy, Ichiru," his mistress says, her voice still trapped between those girly lips and that high tone that slips so easily into a loud laugh. Maria's eyes tease him; Maria's mouth form a small pout; it is Maria's body which sinks into the armchair, its movement coltish, a flail of long bare legs and elbows. "You are no fun anymore," Maria's voice sulks._

_Ichiru looks down at her, this girl that is his mistress and is not. She is barely the size he was when they met, this borrowed body. Maria's eyes study him, and Ichiru feels about to glimpse a shade of the true woman inside her, when one of those borrowed laughs echoes in the room._

_Ichiru closes his eyes and turns on his heel. "I'll see about the carriage."_

_A cruel mistress he has, one that takes everything – except that which he offers the most._

xxx

Ichiru had woken up from his dream to the sight of beige walls and a few items hanging in the closet. He would not be able to go back to sleep, so he'd dragged his feet into the bathroom, lighting no lamps on his way as he was long used to dark hallways and feeling his way around a room. He'd made little noise; everyone else in the dorm was still asleep, and Ichiru didn't feel the need to disturb their rest.

Peaceful boys, all of them. With peaceful dreams.

How mediocre.

He was the first outside, clothes neatly arranged around his body even as he sprawled on one of the garden benches. Dawn seemed slower these days, as if his body was trying to reacquaint itself with the strange occurrence. Ichiru rid himself of the thought; a Hiou servant had no business missing the sun.

He still watched, though. Watched as the sky's colors deepened and then cleared into softer tones. Clouds became visible, lone puffs of white dotting the limitless blue. And then…

Ichiru closed his eyes against the intruding rays.

…the noise started.

Dozens of humans racing inside their rooms. Calling to each other. Babbling and singing, whispering and cursing. The students at Cross Academy, ready to start the new day.

Ichiru didn't move from his post until he heard the first students walking down the stairs, coming closer to the dorm entryway and to his current location. He sat up, stretching his arms to the sides until the last of the night left his body and he was free to blend with the rest of the students. He got to his feet in one smooth movement, and joined the shadowed hall at the same time the first group of boys reached it.

"Hey, Kiryuu-san!"

Curling his hand around his school books, Ichiru managed not to cringe at the playful slap on his back. On his first day at Cross Academy, many students had looked between him and Zero, compared his twin's narrowed eyes, perpetual scowl and rigid posture against Ichiru's relaxed shoulders and the fact that his answers included more than two words and a small smile. At the time, Ichiru had thought, _Look. They like _me_. They love __me_ better.

It had taken him three minutes to understand that Zero truly didn't care.

"Imoto-san," he replied, subtly placing himself out of his classmate's reach.

The other boy didn't notice, instead he fell into step alongside Ichiru and started the conversation with a wide grin. "I wasn't expecting you to remember my name," he said, "I guess twins aren't _that_ alike."

Ichiru thought of the vitamin tablets his mother had always put next to his breakfast. "Guess not."

"You'll be staying through the year, right?"

Unless Rido awakened first. Ichiru smiled at the thought.

Imoto-san took the smile as an affirmative. "All right, then! Because the guys and I have been talking and, well, it's a bit late in the year, but have you thought about joining our _ekiden_ team?"

Ichiru glanced at the other boy. He could count on one hand the number of times someone had looked so excited while walking at his side, and all those times it was Zero's much younger face that came to mind. Damn memories. "No."

Imoto-san's expression fell at the curtness of Ichiru's answer, and to anyone outside Cross Academy the look in his pale eyes would have been a deterrent. But not to someone who'd been treated for years to Zero's aloofness. Imoto-san regrouped in under five seconds. "You can come see our practice, have a talk with Coach," the dark-haired boy insisted. "I bet you'll like it once you see it."

With a hint of amusement, Ichiru wondered how much of a grouch his brother was, when their classmates didn't recognize the sudden coldness in Ichiru's manner as enough of a warning.

"At least promise you'll think about it?"

Ichiru turned his head to study the boy. Such a crestfallen air – a kid whose piece of candy had been denied to him. "Why?"

If Imoto-san was surprised that the conversation continued, he didn't show it. "Are you kidding?" he enthused, making a move with his hands that Ichiru guessed indicated at his body. "You're Zero's _twin_, and it doesn't take a genius to know why the Headmaster picked him as a Guardian. I mean, the rest of us jump – your brother _leaps_."

"I see." It was always about Zero. "You should ask him, then."

The sudden paleness in the boy's complexion told stories about how Zero had handled the team's approach. "Er…. I, um, I believe he's not interested," Imoto-san mumbled. "Probably if we tied Cross-san at the end of the race…." He gulped, though Ichiru wasn't sure if it was a reaction to the sudden flare in his eyes, or at the thought of what Zero would do if anyone tied Yuuki anywhere.

Probably the same Ichiru had planned for those who'd been part of Shizuka-sama's own downfall….

"It's cool, Kiryuu-san." The smile was now a bit forced. Ichiru tried to mask his thoughts with a more appropriate visage. Imoto-san blinked, and unconsciously relaxed. "I thought I should put the invitation out there, that's all."

"Very well." Ichiru opened the classroom door. "Thank you," he said, knowing it was expected.

Itomo-san grinned again before heading to his seat. "You're a pal, Kiryuu-san!" the boy answered even as he kept a wide space between his path and Zero's seat.

Zero glanced up at the name, giving Itomo-san a puzzled look before he realized he wasn't the object of the boy's praise. He turned further, his eyes locking with Ichiru's for a moment before they searched for the girl sitting one row before him. After making sure that Yuuki was well (and even Ichiru could catch the bubbly words as she chatted with her best friend), Zero didn't bother to return his look anymore, instead pulling out a book and leafing through it.

_Doesn't matter_, Ichiru thought. _They_ do _like me better._

Just his luck that, to these children and their games, Ichiru had nothing left to offer.

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**The End  
**30/01/10

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p.s. New set of prompts at **vk_guardians **every Saturday ar 19:00.

vk(underscore)guardians dot livejournal dot com


	3. KanameYuuki

**DISCLAIMER:** Hino-san owns. I play!  
**SUMMARY:** Set in the time between Kaname and Yuuki leaving Cross Academy and the next manga chapter. Kaname comes home. K/Y.  
**RATING:** Mild R.  
**WORDCOUNT:** ~1000

_Written at **vk_guardians. **Prompt: 'When love isn't madness, it isn't love.'_

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**IN HER HANDS  
**_by Leni_

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The room is dark when he enters. New moon outside, wispy clouds cutting the sky into a blurry, mist-touched edge of dawn. The curtains are open, letting the wind play with the heavy hangers around the bed.

His eye follows a thin playful breeze; the scent of rock, bird and evergreens building into the room before it moves on to play with a loose strand of long brown hair. The soft movement unveils her young face, skin unmarked but for a drying film of tears, long dark eyelashes that flutter even as her limbs twitch. Her cheeks are pale, even in the darkness; her lips, thin as she continues her nightly journey in the dreamland.

Her nightmares spike when he isn't there to tuck her in bed, to lie at her side as her breath evens and her hand slides down his chest; he's read the truth in Hanabusa's averted eyes even when she won't say a word. Months have gone by since that night at the Academy, and still he wishes that the Bloody Rose gave Rido the hell he deserved before destroying that body. If only.... His hands fist, helpless against the past; for the first time he understands Juri's wish to push her daughter into another world even if he can't (won't) do what she did.

The price is too high. He knows because he's paid it in full once.

He _can't_....

A jerking movement in the bed, the smell of blood as she bites her lip. Her fingers curl into his pillow. Looking for him?

"Yuuki," he whispers, at her side within a thought.

She moves away from him, body twisting in the tangled sheets before it stills. Her breaths become deeper, her features soften until he sees the girl she used to be before she learned to fear. But she does not fear him; she doesn't. Something deep within him gives way when Yuuki relaxes, something in her having recognized him through the gap between the awake and the asleep.

Sweet Yuuki. He sits at the edge of the mattress, smiling when she rolls closer to him, a bundle of silk and half-unbuttoned pajamas. He scoops her upper body onto his chest, waits until she roots her head into the already familiar spot between collarbone and shoulder.

The wind plays with both now, secreting itself into his open jacket and breathing up to his neck, brushing against the marks she left before his morning meeting. The ends of her pajama top are rustled until they lay on top of his hand, letting him graze the skin at her waist. The wind is restless with her hair, too, lifting a few wild strands and bringing them against his white pant legs. He doesn't touch it, afraid it'll be the small movement that'll wake her up; doesn't close the windows, acquiescing to her wish to keep them open.

This moment is what he envisions through every hour away from home. The taste of her still running through his veins, the easy acceptance with which she welcomes him, the memory of her face under his lips, her body a rippling painting under his fingers.

She is the reason he clung to this realm, the baby in Juri's arms and the girl under Cross's protection. She is the one for whom he built a world and destroyed it when it could no longer fit her. The school girl. The Kuran princess. To him, she is wide excited eyes and a happy smile, warm arms that round about him and don't let go.

She is the girl, the sister, the only judge and jury he'll allow to oversee his actions.

The woman.

(_His._)

And when she is cuddled against him, covered in sheets that smell like both of them and seeking in him refuge from bad dreams, he dares to hope. From the moment she was born, she brought the future to an empty timelessness. That truth had been acknowledged by Haruka and Juri, it had been accepted by his sweet little sister… and then she was torn away.

For long years, he only knew one other truth: as his bloodline could be traced to her parents, so his sanity was cradled in her unknowing hands.

Should Yuuki have forsaken him….

He doesn't dare think of the consequences.

But even in the shadows of her human life, she refused to let go. Drawn to him, bound by blood and buried memories…. It couldn't have ended any other way.

"Sweet, gentle Yuuki," he murmurs to the sleeping girl, shedding away the pressures of the day, Aidou's counsel and the hostilities of a Hunter's Association that's more cautious around a single pureblood than when the Council held the power of the vampire world - laying in the grass like a snake, they are, and Kaname tires of waiting for them to show their poison. He'd rather deal with Zero's straightforward ire than the word games he's sidestepped for months, can't wait until the boy steps to the post he's been reserved.

But not today.

He wants to shift the smaller body in his arms even closer, or at least bend his head to kiss her crown, her hair, wherever he can reach. But Yuuki looks so peaceful…. Instead his hand moves from her waist to search for hers, covers it where it has been resting against his heart since the moment she pressed against him.

That's enough for him.

He leans back against the headboard, content to hold her, and it is the utter silence which stirs her.

"Kaname…" she says against his jacket, stretching until her toes touch his calves and her mouth brushes his earlobe. "I missed you, Onii-sama."

Then she kisses him on the edge of his cheek, a sleepy goodnight kiss, and he can't help but bring her closer and take her mouth in his. "Don't ever go, Yuuki." He knows she could; he knows she won't.

He knows every path, yet he is willing to follow her lead.

She looks up at him for a moment, her eyes wide and her arms already moving to wrap themselves around him. "Never, Kaname." An oath against his lips. "_Never_."

He smiles, wanting (needing) to believe.

But then, she knows nothing at all.

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**The End  
**01/03/10

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p.s. New set of prompts at **vk_guardians **every Saturday ar 19:00.

vk(underscore)guardians dot livejournal dot com


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